Page 36 of Double Trouble for the Mafia Prince
There is no keeping it a secret forever.
Not in our world, not in his.
Children are leverage.
Heirs.
Vulnerabilities.
And the Salvatores don't leave vulnerabilities lying in the dark.
I think about telling him.
The image comes sharp and clear.
His face when I say the words.
His body going still.
That strange stillness he wears like armor when the world shifts too suddenly.
But I don’t know what he’ll do.
And if that isn’t terrifying enough, I know what I want him to do, and it’s very far from the playboy image he’s constructed for himself.
I press my hands to my stomach, flat and still firm beneath the silk, and close my eyes.
This can’t be dealt with like a missed shipment or a botched negotiation.
This is flesh.
Blood.
Consequence.
And if I’m right, I will need to decide what survival looks like—again.
Not just for me, but for the child who didn’t ask to be born into this world of power, secrets, and velvet nooses.
I rise slowly.
Wrap my robe tighter.
The first appointment I schedule is not to tell Dante.
It’s to confirm what I already know.
After that, everything will depend on the choices I make next, and whether or not he gets to make any of them.
6
GIANNA
The walls in the clinic are painted in shades of soft ivory, probably chosen to resemble calm, but it does nothing for me.
There is no music.
No clock.
